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1-1-1934

The Treatment of Nature in the Poetry of Coleridge

Esther S. Brenton

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Brenton, Esther S., "The Treatment of Nature in the Poetry of Coleridge" (1934). Graduate Thesis Collection. Paper 102.

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THE TREATMENT OF NATURE IN THE POETRY OF COLERIDGE

by

ESTHER SPEARS BRENTON

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
Department of English
Butler University

Indianapolis
1934
lJJ
l"I

,:oJ

FOREYiORD

The treatment of nature by the English Romantic poets of

the nineteenth century is commonly thought to be confined to the
poetry of Wordsworth. Although the bulk of Wordsworth's poetry
is concerned with nature, a study of the poetry of the period
reveals that the other great Romanticists were also interested
in nature. This thesis is written to show how great a factor
the treatment of nature is in the poetry of Samuel Taylor Col­
eridge.

5~905
 TABLE OF CONTE~~S

Chapter Page
I Introduction ••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1

II Descriptive Treatment of External Nature •••••• 4

(1) Manner of Descriptive Treatment ••••••••••• 5

(2) Phases of Nature that Appeal to Coleridge. 12

III The Lyrical Treatment of Nature ••••••••••••••• 29

(1) Interest of Coleridge in His Own Emo­

tions ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 29

(2) Coleridge's Philosophy of Nature •••••••••• 33

(3) Personal Response of Coleridge to Nature •• 41

IV The Treatment of Nature as Background ••••••••• 53

(1) The Natural Background as Related to

Character ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 53

(2) The Natural Background as Related to

Action •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 56

V Conclusion •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 64

Bibliography •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 68

 THE TREATMENT 01" NATURE IN THE POETRY OF COLERIDGE

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The poetry of the age to which Samuel Taylor Coleridge

belongs is marked by a new sensitiveness to the features of ex­
ternal nature. Nature poetry in the preceding age had been
largely mere observation of physical phenomena. It lacked the
imaginative touch necessary to lift it to a place of importance
as a poetic theme. The English romantic poets of the nine­
teenth century bring the world of nature into the range of imag­
inative art, and give it a place of first importance in their
poetic creations. They make nature alive, invest it with an
indwelling sense or spirit. There, too, is a transfusion of
the spirit of man into outward nature, of outward nature into
the spirit of man. The soul of the Romanticist, dissatisfied
with the world of fact and reality, finds an outlet in the
world of external nature where, seeing through or beyond the
forms of sense perception--trees, lakes, flowers, mountains,
etc.--,it experiences a wonder, a joy, a truth of life, which
is deeply satisfying. The vision of the poet is thus widened
and his power of feeling increased, so that a new richness and
 2

beauty marks the nature poetry of the Romanticist.

Coleridge does not depart from his contemporaries. Words­
worth, Scott, Byron, Shelley, Keats, in his love of external
nature, although his treatment of this theme has for some two
or three reasons been unduly thrown into the shadow in most of
the estimates of his poetry. In the r1rs~ place, Wordsworth
has been thought of as the great nature poet of the Romanticists,
because his poetry is more exclusively deYo~ed to the theme of
nature than that of the others. In the second place, the un­
earthly splendors of the masterpieces of Coleridge in the realm
of the supernatural have prevented many from seeing and appre­
ciating the great amount of nature voetry written by him. Fi­
nally, a third reason for the failure to recognize Coleridge as
a poet of nature arises from an inherent quality in his treat­
ment of this theme. There is not the full and direct descrip­
tion of nature in Coleridge that there is in Wordsworth. It
is to nature in her most delicate and minute aspects that Col­
eridge turns his attention. Because he does not give a solid.
well-rounded portrayal of the form or object in the external
world, some have failed to see him as a true nature poet. They
have not caught the delicate and subtle charm which is the es­
sence of his nature treatment, or, if they have, have tended
to associate it with his supernatural verse. There is reason,
of course, for thinking of the poetry of Coleridge in connec­
tion with the witchery and magic of his supernatural poems,
tor it is here that his poetic genius reaches its highest and
fullest expression, but among his work there are also some ex­
quisite nature poems and many passages in other poems, including
his supernatural creations, which reveal a keen interest in and
knowledge of the forms and phases of external nature. To show
how Coleridge has treated the tneme of nature in his poetry is
the aim of this study.
 4

CHAPTER II

DESCRIPTIVE TREATAillNT OF EXTERNAL NATutlli IN COLERIDGE

Every poet's treatment of nature, just as his treatment of

humanity, the supernatural, or any other theme, is always gov­
erned by his creative temperament. We do not find in the treat­
ment of nature by Keats, for instance, the spiritual quality
which marks Shelley's treatment of the same theme. So in the
poetry of Coleridge there is not the direct description of ex­
ternul nature that there is in the nature poetry of Scott or of
Wordsworth. The reason for this lies in the fact that Coleridge
is primarily interested in the effect that the scene from the
outer world has upon his feelings, his inner soul. His reaction
to the scene, rather than a description of it, finds emphasis
in the nature poetry of Coleridge •. It is in only a few of his
poems tb~t nature is treated in an objective way as a theme.
There are, however, many passages, scattered here and there
among his poetry, that describe nature directly and reveal the
aspects of the external world that appealed to him. It is to
these, in the main, that one must go to learn of the distinct
marmer which characterizes Coleridge's descriptive treatment
of nature. What his manner of treatment was, and what his in­
terests in the outer· world of nature were, will be our first
consideration in this study of the treatment of nature in the
poetry of Coleridge.

(1) Manner of Descriptive Treatment

The subtle psychology which underlies all of Coleridge's

finest poetic expression is revealed in his descriptions of ex­
ternal nature. It is Coleridge who points out that "a labo­
rious minuteness and fidelity in the representatlon of objects
and their positions as they appeared to the poet himself" is a
1
defect in the poetry of Wordsworth. He sees in such painting
of imagery something unnecessary. Such close and full descrip­
tions, he thinks,
too often occasion in the mind of the reader ••• a feeling
of labor, not very dissimilar to that with which he would con­
struct a diagram, line by line, for a long geometrical compo­
sition. 2
So it is in exquisite hints and touches that Coleridge presents
nature to us. There are evidences in his descriptions of a
watchfulness for the rare and minute aspects of physical phe­
nomena. Hence it is that he is able to call attention to many
interesting features of the natural scene that would never be
noted by one not gifted with the delicate sensibility and the
keen and penetrating eye that are his. Such delicate images
3
and sensations as the "stilly murmur of the distant, sea", the

1. Biographla Llteraria, XIV, p.lOl.

2. ~, p.102.
3. li'The Eolian Harp" in ~ ~ of Samuel Taylor Colerldge,
Oxford University Press, I;OiidOn, 1931, p.100, 1.11. (This will
be the edition used hereafter 'in all references to the poems
of Coleridge).
 6

1 2
fragrance of the bean field and furze, the creaking of the rook's
3 4
wing as it soars over head, the "little sun" peeping through the
5
leaves and surrounded by IIten-thousand threads and hairs of light",
the thin, pale cloud which as it nears the moon, is gradually col­
6
ored until it is flooded with a "rich and amber light V the"fair
7
electric flame" which is seen to flash from the marigold, the
8
~tint of yellow green" seen in the sky at sunset, the t~embling
9
of the few damp yellow leaves in the breath of the waterfall, and
10
the glint of the yellow moon light in the tear of his child's eye,
will give some idea of the subtle manner that characterizes Col­
eridge's descriptive treatment of nature. Of his sensitive ap­
prehension of the delicate and minute phases of natural scenery,
Cazamain, in his account of Coleridge, says:
He reaps a richer harvest through the senses than Words­
worth. They invest his impressions of nature with an extra­
ordinary freshness and splendor, and at the same time with a
shrewd, ~nute precision which reveals the analytical mind. 11
The sensitiveness of Coleridge to color and light is a
factor which influences his landscape painting to a considerable
extent. The gloomy gray landscape such as Wordsworth portrays
in his pictures of the solitary moor is scarcely touched by

1. .~ Eolian ~,. Egems, p.lOO, 11.9-11.

2. Fears i!! Bo~"'" p. 363, 1.204.
3. ThisIt£::-gree Dg,wgr.M.Y. prl~(m,p.18l, 11.73-74.
4. The raves, p.284, 1•. Zl7.
5. Ibid, 1.511.
6. Hlwti, p.254,11.15-21.
7. LbBes s1 SbYaton Bars, p.9S, 11.92-93.
8. ~jection;&l ~""'"P':364, 1.'29.
9. This 1!m!-Trea Bower Ml Prison, p.179, 11.14-16.
10. The 11Kh~ale,. p.267, 11.104-05.
11. Legou1s,' Ie, and Cazamain, A History of English Literature,
p.1044.
Coleridge. His landscape abounds in rich and bright colors.
Such lines as these from ~his ~ - ~ ~wer ,frison-­
Ah! slowly sink
Behind the western ridge, thou glorious Sun!
Shine in the slant beams of the sinking orb,
Ye purple heath flowersl richlier burn, ye clouds!
Live in the yellow light, ye distant groves!
And kinale, thou blue Ocean! 1
or these from an earlier poem-­
there uprears

That shadowing Pine its old romantic limbs

Which latest shall detain the enamour'd sight

Seen from below, WIlen eve the valley dims,

Tinged yellow with the rich departing light; 2

or these from Fears !n Solitude-­

The hills are heathy, save that swelling slope
Which hath a gay and gorgeous colcring on,
All golden with the never-bloomless furze,
Which now blooms most profusely; 3
show this tendency of Coleridge to dress the landscape in a
garment of bright and gay colors.

The delicate and subtle images we have noted so far in Col­

eridge's descriptions of nature are a recording of the minute
and rare aspects of the outer world which anyone endowed with a
delicate sensibility might perceive. They do not seem to be
colored by the poet's imagination, but to be an accurate repre­
sentation of certain delicate features of physical phenomena
as they exist in the external scene. Such is not the case with
another group of images which have much the same delicacy and
illusiveness as those just described, but which reveal a dif­

1. Poems, pp.179-80, 11.32-37.

2. 12 ~ Young Frieud, ~, p.156, 11.31-35.
3. ~, p.256, 11.4-11.
 8

ferent method of treatment. Here the images are drawn from the
outside world, but they are changed or colored by the imagination
of the poet. In such treatment the transforming power of Col­
eridge's imagination empties objects of their substance, as it
were, and leaves only the shado~, the glow, or the mist which
remains. An example of this transforming power of Coleridge's
imagination is found in Dejection: As~, where a stanza from
the old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence serves as an iIltroduction
to the poem. Now in this introductory stanza-­
Late, late yestreen I saw the new Moon,
With the Old Moon in her arms;
And I fear, I fear, my Master dear1
We shall have a deadly storm.- 1
the "new moon with the old muon in her aI'ws" is a real phenom­
enon; it can be observed with human eyes. Although it is rare,
it belongs to the world of natural reality. In the course of
the poem Coleridge refers to this same phenomenon, but his
image has quite a different appearance from that in the quo­
tation. The moon is transformed by Coleridge's imagination in­
to a phantasm:
For 101 tho new l~oon winter brightl
And overspread with phantom light,
(With swimming phantom light o'erspread,
But rimmed and circled by a silver thread)
I see the old Moon in her lap, foretelling
The coming on of rain and squally blast. 2
Here there is no substance; we see only the outward properties.
The emphasis is on the swimming light and the Just barely visible

1. ~, p.363.
2. ~ll.9-14.
silver thread. These are the glories added to the scene by the
1
"beauty-making power h of the poet's imaginatio~. Symons points
to this aspect of Coleridge's descriptions of nature, when he
says that there is
an aerial glitter in Coleridge which we rind in no other
poet, and in Turner only among painters. With him color is
melted into atmosphere which it shines through like fLre within
a crystal. It is a mist of rain in bright sunshine; his images
are fDr the most part derived from water, sky, and changes of
weather, shadows of things rather than things themselves. 2
The "aerial glitter" here referred to is, of course, the
aaded glory which the imagination imparts to objects or sense
perception. Substances thus become phantasms which attract by
their glitter, color, and delicacy. In Lewti the shadow of a
star is seen on the water and attention is called to the thin­
ness of the cloud vapor. In Cbri§tabel there is an almost iden­
tical cloud:
The thin grey cloud is spread on high
It covers but not hides the sky. 3
The sky is descernible through this cloud, but the cloud has
enough substance or thickness to affect the appearance of the
moon:
The moon is behind and at the full
And yet she looks both small and dull. 4
Many scenes froDl the Ancient Mar;Der are excellent exaro~les or
the phantasmal quality of Coleridge's natural description. In
the description of the ice-berg covered sea in the following

1. Dejection: An Ude~p. 365, 1.63.

2 •. ~ Romantiq Movem@nt in Inglish Poetr¥. p.143.

3~ poems, p.2l6, ll.16-~7.

4. Ibi.d, p.2l6,ll.18-l9.
passage-­
And now there caIne both mist and snow
And it grew wondro~s cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,

As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts

Did send a dismal sheen--l

it is the mist, the cold, the color of the ice, and the "dis­
mal sheen" which the poet emphasizes. In the picture of the
moonlight as it shines through a mist in these lines-­
Whiles all the night, through fog smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon shine, 2
and in many sindlar descriptions this same tendency--the ten­
dency to portray the enveloping mist, the shadow, the surface
glitter of the object rather than the body and substance 01' the
object itself--is marked. Thus nature as viewed through the eyes
of Coleridge is filled with beaut~ and color of a most rare and
delicate kind.
The unreal, unearthly aspect that is imparted to natural
imagery by the imagination of Coleridge is largely a result of
the dreamy tendency of his temperament. In him there was never
a very sharp marking off of the real from the ideal, or of the
waking hours from the sleeping hours, and either asleep or awake,
he was always dreaming. It is in Kubla ~ that Coleridge has
shown most fUlly the reality and vividness of his dreams. Not
only the images, :.'ihich he saw as "things", but the exact words
with their harmony of sound, the wonderful melody, the very

1.
2.
J6t1S., p.189,
p.1B8, 11.51-56.
11.77-78.
 1
form, in fact, of this beautiful lyric were composed in sleep.
The natural imagery in this poem is transformed by the
dreamy imaginative temperament of Coleridge into a supernatural
landscape. The nsta~ely pleasure dome" of Kubla Khan is to be
built in Xanadu where
Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Do~n to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

.with walls and towers were girdled round:

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an: incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hillS,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. 2

Of the weird, supernatural aspect of this imagery pictured in

these lines, the author leaves no dOUbt, when in the second stan­
za he describes it, or at least a part of it,--the"deep roman­
tic chasm"--as
A sav~ge placeJ as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon loverl 3
This supernatural aspect of the scene is heightened by the
stifled emotion of turmoil which nature exhibits. The pent­
up emotion of the earth is pictured as being released in the
"half-intermitted" burst of a mighty fo~tain which throws up
huge rocks in the manner that the flail of the thresher sends
up chaff. This fountain is the source of the sacred river which
4
flows for five miles down to the "caverns measureless to man"
5
where it sinks into a "sunless sea". ~he height of' the super­
natural is reached in the image of the shadow of the dome of

1. Poems, p.296. 'i 5. Ibid. 1.5,

.~,p.297, 11.3-11.
3.~, 11.14-16.
4.IbId, 1.4.
pleasure which floats midway between the fountain and the caves
where mingled sounds from each can be heard. It was indeed. as
Coleridge SeiYs.
a miracle of rare device,
A. sunny pleasure-dome with caves of icel 1
Th~is a succession of images which at first give a sense of

wonder. then one of horror. both of which feelings blend to

give a sense of mystery to all at the end of the poem. Thus im­
pressions drawn from nature are here fused by the imagination of
Coleridge into a purely supernatural landscape.

. (2) Phases of Nature that Appeal to Coleridge

The interests of the poet in the world of nature range from

the smallest individual plant. animal, or bird to the broad el­
ements.~f sky.. earth. and the processes of nature. The flower,
an animal. a landscape scene. the sea, or an atmospheric con­
dition may make an appeal to the poet and thus become material
for poetic treatment. A study of the nature poetry of Coleridge
reveals his interest in (a) the landscape scene. (b) the broad
elemental aspects of nature. and (c) animal, bird. and plant
life. Let us look at these three phases of his interest as they
find expression in his descriptions of nature.

(a) Features of the Landscape

Passage after passage in the poetry of Coleridge displays

1. Poems, p.29a, 11.35-36.

the beauty of the English landscape no less faithfully than the
poems of Wordsworth. Much has been written upon the close friend­
ship of Coleridge and Wordsworth during the Nether Stowey period-­
how they, in the high spirits of youth and hope, roamed over
the beautiful Somerset hills, on the top of the Quantocks and
among the sloping coombs. It is the charm of the Quantock dis­
trict with its airy ridges, soft green dells, and wide view of
sea that Coleridge paints for us. In his treatment of this scen­
ery, there are two features of the landscape which particularly
attract him-- tiny spots of beauty as they are seen close at
hand, and the broad view of the hillside, valleys, and sea as
they are beheld from the height of a hill top. Both of these
features are treated in his Fears in bolitude.
The poem opens with a description of a dell, which he thinks
"all would love" and in which the poet hides himself away from
the noise of the world to muse and dream:
A green and silent spot amid the hills,

A,small and silent delll O'er stiller place

No singing sky-lark ever poised himself.

The hills are heathy, save that swelling slope,

Which hath a gay and gorgeous covering on,

All golden with the never-bloomless furze,

Which now blooms most profusely: but the dell,

Bathed by the mist, is fresh and delicate

As vernal cornfield, or the unripe flax,

When, through its half-transparent stalks, at eve,

The level sunshine glimmers with green light. 1

After he has reflected and dreamed on the dangers of war, the

political questions of the day, and his love of England, he notes

1. Poems, p.256, 11.1-11.

the approach of evening-­
But now the gentle dew-fall sends abroad
The fruit-like perfume of the golden furze:
The light has left the summit of the h1l1,
Though still-a sunny gleam lies beautiful,
Aslant the ivied beacon, 1
and bids farewell to this "soft and silent spottl of beauty. Then
he "winds his way homeward" along the sheep track up the heath­
covered hill. He reaches the brow and is surprisingly startled
by the prospect below, which he describes with glow and enthus­
iasm in these llnes~

This burst of prospect, here the shadowy main,

Dim-tinted, there the mighty majesty

Of that huge amphitheatre of rich

And elmy fields, seems l~e society-­

Conversing with the mind, and giving it

A livelier impulse and a dance of thought I 2

In This ~ - ~ Bower Ml Prison, in which these hills

and dells of the Quantocks are truthfully and affectionately
described, the two-fold beauty of the landscape is seen to ap­
peal to the poet again. Here Coleridge laments the fact that
he was not able to go for a walk with his friends, but even
though he cannot follow them in body, he does travel with them
in thought through the beautiful scenes which he loves. He
beholds them first, in his mind's eye, wandering sown from the
"hill-top edge" to
that still roaring dell, of which I told;

The roaring dell, o'erwooded,narrow, deep,

And only speckled by the mid-day sun;

Where its slim trunk the ash from rock to rock

Flings arching like a bridge;--that branchless ash,

1. ~oems, p.863. 11. 263-~07.

2. Ibid, p.26~, 11.2~5-20.
 Unsunn'd and damp. whose few poor yellow leaves
Ne'er tremble in the gale. yet tremble still.
Fann'd by the water-fallS 1
Soon the friends, as he imagines them, are on the edge of the
hill-top viewing
The many-steepled tract magnificent
Of hilly fields and meadows, and the sea.
With some fair bark, perhaps, whose sails light up
The slip of smooth clear blue betwixt two Isles
Of purple shadowl 2
Of these quotations from lIara in ~itUde ~ This ~-

~ ~r jI Pr1sop. it may be said, in passing, that in the

freshness and delicacy of the dell, bathed in mist, in the
striking color of the sun shining through the flax stalks, in
the close attention to detail by which he can search out the
very spirit of a place, and in the sensitiveness to color seen
in his image of the sea, one reoognizes touches that mark this
natural description as distinctly Coleridge's own.
Many are the testimonies of attachment to the Quantock
region to be fo~nd in the poems of Coleridge. His Eolian ~,

Dejectio~: An ~, and ~ !JJ,ghtinKale are filled with beauti­

ful passages of minute and subtle observations of the scenery
about him. Even in two early poems, 1ines Composeg Vihile Climb­
ing Br~ey CoumR and !2 ~ Yo~ Friend-- poems which are not
usually taken into consideration in an estimate of his genius-­
the joy that he felt in the features of the landscape, especially
the wide prospect which the hill-top commanded, is shown. In

1.
2.
!b:fS' p.178, 11.9-18.
i , p.179, 11.22-26.
the former poem the author records step by step the various ob­
jects that he sees as he climbs the steep hill, but the images
are not lighted up by emotion nor are they bound into an imag­
inative whole until he reaches the brow and is deeply impressed
by the wide landscape below. Then his verse does reflect the
emotion he felt:
AhJ what a luxury of landscape meets
My gazel Pr~ld towers, and Cots more dear to me,
Blm-shadow'd Fields, and prospect-bounding Seal
Deep sighs my lonel] heart: I drop the tear:
Enchanting spotl 0 were my Sara herel 1
In the latter poem there is a similar description of the objects
that meet the poet's view as he climbs a mountain, and an expres­
sion of his pleasure in the widening landscape as he nears the
top:
A mount, not wearisome and bare and steep,
But a green mountain variously up-piled,

~bere o'er the jutting rocks soft mosses creep,

Or colored lichens with slow oozing weep;

~bere cypress and the darker yew start wild;

And 'mid the summer torrent's gentle dash

Dance brighten'd the red clusters of the ash;

••••
Such a green mountain 'twere most sweet to climb,
E'en while the bosom ach'd with loneliness-­
How more than sweet if some dear friend should bless
The adventurous toil, and up the path sublime
Now lead, now follow: the glad landscape round,
Wide and more wide, increasing without boundl 2
Although of the two phases of the landscape which appealed to
Coleridge--the dells and the broad prospect--the former does
not find expression in these early descriptions, there is in
them a clear expression of his love of a boundless landscape of
hill and sea and sky.

1. Pgtms, p.94, 11.12-16.

2. Ibid, pp.155-156, 11.1-19.
 Before leaving the subject of Coleridge's treatment of the
landsc.ape, mention should be made of his interest in night)scenes.
Frost n Wnight, A Night Piece, CW.stabel, ~ llightingale,
~ove, and Lewti all have a night setting. In each instance the
most delicate aspects of the night are observed. The treatment
may consist of a rendering of an atmospheric condition such as
the silent ministries of the frost, the .alminess of a summer
night, or the chill of late fall or early spring; a description
of the landscape in which the thick growth of tr·ees, small plants,
and flowers or some rare aspect of nature such as the lIone red
1
leaf" is pictured; or a description of the sky with its mcon~

stars, and floating clouds. Lewti, for instance, the chief

merit of which is derived from its delioate and subtle imagery
of the night scene, shows the changing aspect of a thin cloud
as it is affected by the moon. The cloud first changes its
appearance as it nears the moon:
I saw a cloud of palest hue,
Onward to the moon it passed;

Still brighter and more bright it grew

With floating colors not a few

Till it reached the moon at last:

Then the cloud was wholly bright,
With a rich and amber lightl 2
Then, as it moves away from the moon, its color fades:
Its hues are dim, its hues are grey-­
Away it passes from the moon. 3
The moon is an important feature in the majority of COl­
eridge's night pieces. Let us notica a few of them. The

1. ~istabel, p.217, 1.49.

2. Qimsw p.254, 11.~5-2l.
3. ~, 11.31-32 •

nightingales, in his poem The Nightingale, are pictured on "moon­

light bushes",
1
"Whose dewy leaflets are but half-disclosed".
A cold, dim moonlight falls over the wOod, the bright lady, the
sleeping dog, and the great old castle in the poem CAt~stabel.

Again, the moonlight steals over the scene where the lover tells
the old romantic story of the Knight and the Lady of the Land
2
to his guileless Genevieve. Finally, although the scenes or
The Rime of !b! Ancient Mariner are dra~~ from both day time and
night, there are in this poem many exquisite descriptions of
moonlight scenes on the water. I have read somewhere a state­
ment to the effect that the moon belongs to the soul of Col­
eridge, and I believe that one cannot read his desoriptions or
external nature without reeling something of the truth of this
statement.

(b) Broad, Elemental Aspects of Nature

A few short poems and certain descriptive passages from
the longer poems of Coleridge treat nature in its broad aspects
of sea, sky, and atmosphere. The best illustration of such
treatment is found in The Rime £f the Ancient Mariner,although
the descriptions of nature in this poem do not constitute the
element of chier interest but serve as a background for the
human and supernatural elements. Tne descriptions are of wide
range, covering practically every aspect of the elements of

1. ~,P.266, 11.64-45.
2. Itm.,p.332, 1.9.
nature that might be experienced on a sea voyage. There are
descriptions of the heat of the tropics, of the mild weather of
the temperate zone, and of the extreme cold of the polar region.
How vividly and accurately he has pictured these three climatic
conditions may be seen from the following quotations: the first,
a scene from the tropics-­
All in a hot and copper sky
The bloody Sun at noon
Right up above the mast did stand
No bigger than the Moon; 1
the second, a picture of the temperate climate-­
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew;
The furrow followed free; 2
and the third, a view of the frigid polar weather-­
And now there came both mist and smow,
And it grew wondrous cold .
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald. 3
One might fill a page or more with verses from the poem
which picture the sea in its various aspects as it is affected
by the natural elements. There is the storm-blast which sweeps
the ship over the sea, the ice-berg covered sea at the pole,
the sea in fog and in mist, the fair breeze and the white foam
of the sea as the ship, freed from the ice, begins its course
northward, the silent sea in the scorching heat of the tropical
calms, the fierce storm which breaKs upon the sea causing the
sails to "sigh like sedge", the gentle breezes of the temperate
seas, and the white and silent harbor bay at home. Everyone

1. Poems, p.190, 11.111-14.

2. ~, p. 190, 11.103-04.
3. Ibid, p. 188, 11.51-54.
of these pictures of the sea from this wide range of descriptions
is not only true to nature but is made mor~impressive by the im­
aginative beauty in which it is expressed.
Another vivid picture is presented in this field of des­
cription in the treatment of the tropical squall seen in these
two stanzas~

The coming wind did roar more loud,

And the sails did sigh like sedge;

the rain poured down from ODe black cloud

The moon was at its edge.

The thick black cloud was cleft, and still

The Moon was at its side:

Like waters shot from some high crag,

The lightning fell with never a jag,

A river steep and wide. 1

Then, too, the quietness of the harbor is depicted in just as

impressive a manner. The description in these lines is marked
with the finest quality of truth and beauty of expression:
The harbour-bay was clear as glass,

So smoothly it was strewn,

And on the bay the moonlight lay,

And the shadow of the Moon.

The rock shone bright, the kirk no less,

That stands above the rock:

The moonlight steeped in silentness

The steady weathercock. 2

The skill with which Coleridge has set forth the broad
spacious phases of nature in the Ancient Mariner is remarkable.
Whole scenes are made to stand out clearly by the use of a few
simple words. ~bat general effect was ever presented more ac­
curately than that of the coming of the tropical night, em­

1. Poems, p.l£9, 11.318-26.

2. Ibid,p. 204-05, 11.72-79.
bodied in these two lines:
The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out:
At one stride comes the dark; 1
or that of the moonlight flooding the bay and spreading in silence
over the church and weathercock on the shore in the lines quoted
on the preceding page? In a few carefully chosen words, Coleridge
renders in scene after scene the sense of the vastness of all na­
ture, the vastness which one feels when sailing upon the sea with
the expanse of water under him, the winds blowing about him, and
the great dome of the sky with its sun or moon and myriads of
stars over him.

(c) Individual Objec~s

In addition to his interest in the landscape and in the
broad aspects of nature, there is in Coleridge an interest in
the individual objects of nature-- the flower, the animal, the
bird, and the small creatures of the universe.
A stUdy of the poetry of Coleridge reveals a general in­
terest in flowers, their color, and fragrance, but nothing of
the feeling of love for some particular flower such as there
is in the nature poetry of Wordsworth. He has left no memorable
poem which was inspired by a flower. There are two little poems
entitled To a P~imrose and In! Rose, but as far as description
of the flower or the poet's attitude toward it is concerned,both
are disappointing. In the former the poet's attention is di­

rected toward the flower because it is one of the first to peep

1. Poems, p.195, 11.199-200.

 22

through the ground and thus is seen as a messenger o£· spring. We

hear only of the paleness of its color and this paleness sets
the poet to reflecting on sickness, hope, grief, and joy, on which
note of meditation ~he poem ends. In the treatment of the rose
in the second poem the emphasis "falls on the" little fairy, Love,
which enfolded in the petals of the rose, is presented to the
poet's sweetheart. The rose, however, is referred to as tlthe
1
Garden's pride".
Although the flower does not serve as a theme in the poetry
of Coleridge, there is evidence in his po~try of his int~est

in flowers. Such interest is revealed in his pictures of the

2 2
white-flowered jasmine, the broad-leafed myrtle, the fragrant
3 4
bean flower, the purple heath blossoms, the never-bloomless
5 6 7
furze, soft mosses, the dusky night-shade flowers, the dark
8 9
green adder's tongue, king cups, and the scarlet flower of the
10
churning plant. But the flower, in each case, is treated as a
small or incidental part of a larger scene or view.

In his treatment of the individual objects of nature, Col­

eridge's interest in the life of the animal and the lower crea­
tures of the universe is marked. His poetry reveals especially
an interest in the close relationship of the life of the animal

1. Poems, p.45.
2. The Eolian Harp, p.lOO, 1.4.
3. To ~ Unrortu!Io,te Woman si the Theatre, p.171, 1.28.
4. This Lime-Tree Bower A~ Prison, p.180, 1.35.
5. Fears in Solitude, p.257, 1.6."
6.~~he Foster Mo~her's Tale, p.~83, 1.24.
, JO ~ Young Fr~end, p.155, 1.3.
9; IQ ~ Friend, p.159, 11.33-34.
8~ Melancholy, p.74, l.~.
9. The ~htingale I p"~, 1.54...0 11 85 86
16.The Man of ~~, p.Z5, • - •
a=nd the life of man. Let us see the various ways in which such
kinship is presented in his poetic treatment of this theme.
Coleridgets feeling of love and sympathy for the animal
finds expression in his poem, To a Young Ass, written during the
time he was dreaming of establishing an ideal society in Amer­
ica, his Pantisocratic scheme. Of this lowly animal that won­
ders if it has ~ friend, so miserably has it been treated,
Coleridge says:
Innocent foall thou poor despised forlornl
I hail thee Brother--spite of fool's scorn;
And fain would take thee with me in the dell
Of peace and mild equality to dwell
••••
How thou wouldst toss thy heels in gamesome play,
And frisk about as lamb or kitten gay.
Yeal and nore musically sweet to me
Thy dissonant harsh bray of joy would be
Than warbled melodies that soothe to rest
The aching of pale Fashionts vacant breast. 1
Although the sentiment here expressed may seem a bit exaggerated,
it indicates a strain of interest constant in Coleridge's poetry,
namely his feeling of sympathy for the animal world.
In Cbristabel, the llianner in which the animal is treated is
the opposite of that which we have just seen; the attitude of
the author is one of antipathy rather than of sympathy. The
snake, the animal toward which such an attitude is adopted, is
here used to symbolize the evil forces at work in human life.
The snake is not directly described, but its appearance and na­
ture are revealed in the form of an evil woman, Geraldine. The
characteristics of the snake are seen in the dazzling surface

1. Poems, pp.75-76, 11.26-36.

 24

glitter of Geraldine's person. She is pictured as a bright lady

with such a sparkling beauty and dazzling charm as to be fasci­
nating just as is the snake. Then, too, there is a false mod­
esty and a seeming helplessness about her which bespeak the
treacherous nature of the snake. She is able by such decep­
tion to weave herself into the affections of the innocent maiden,
Christabel, and thus torment her saul with an unspeakable horror.
The snaKe, then, as here presented in human form, symbolizes the
deadly force of evil in life to which one may fall a prey be­
cause he cannot detect its ugliness which is hidden under its
surface beauty and attractiveness.
In the second part of this poem a further use of the ani­
mal to symbolize an attribute of human life is presented in the
vision of Bracy, in which he beholds a dove struggling in the
coils of a bright green snake. His dream takes place just as
Geraldine is working her spell on Christabel. The dove, then,
would represent innocence and purity just as the snake repre­
sents evil. This scene from animal life is used to contribute
to a clearer notion of a similar situation of human life.
The l)oet also shows his interest in animal psychology when,
in this same poem, he pictures the old mastiff as being aware
of the approaching evil before the human being is. As Christa­
bel, ignorant of the true nature of her comp~nion, pas8e~ across
the yard to the castle with Geraldine, the old dog J Coleridge
says,
did not awake,

Yet she an angry moan did make. 1

1. Poems, p.2~2, 11.147-48.

 In the Ancient iner the animal is pictured as being an
integral part of the great scheme of nature to which man belongs.
Its life is important and sacred, for the eternal spirit of love
is felt by Coleridge to bind all creation--man, bird, and beast-­
into one vast harmonious fellowship. So close is this relation­
ship that man's attitude toward the life of all created things
is indicative of his true worth, his character. This theme is
presented in the form of a story in which the experiences of an
old mariner on a sea voyage are the result of his attitude to­
ward two forms of animal life-- an albatross and the water snakes
of the great calm.
Near the first of the story the alb5.tross comes through
the fog to the Mariner's ice-bound ship and proves to be a bird
of good omen, for the ice, soon after its arrival, breaks apart,
and a "good south \"lind" carries the ship northward on its voyage.
All goes well until the Mariner impulsively shoots the bird.
Now to Coleridge the bird, as a part of Cod's creation, is sa­
cred; it is a symbol of all life, and its wanton killing is
viewed as a crime &gainst life. The whole spiritual world of
na ture is l)ictured as being angry with this man who has no
sympathy for the animal world, who kills without thought or
reason. The Spirit of the South Pole (the guardian spirit of
the albatross) and its fellow-daemons (invisible inhabitants
of the elements, of which Coleridge says in his prose com­
1
mentary, "there is no climate without one or more" ) make the
Mariner suffer from intense heat and thirst for his lack of

1. Poems, p.191.
appreciation of the beauty and worth of the animal world. It
is through their workings that the death of the bird is avenged
and that the Mariner is made to see the horror of his crime.
The Mariner's unsympathetic attitude toward the forms of
nature is further revealed when, in his suffering, he sees the
water snaKes as loathsome and slimy. He turns away from the
rotting sea, alive with its ugly creatures and tries to pray,
only to find his heart nas dryas dust". Soon after this, he
is attracted by the moon and notes the lIJeauty of the light upon
the water. FroID the awakening of his heart to .this beauty, he
sees the bright and flcishing colors of the water snaKes, the
elfish light that "fell off in hoary flakes" as they reared in
the moonlight. In the shadow made by the ship he sees their
rich colors, "blue, glossy green, and velvet black", and notices
the "flash of golden f1re l1 made by their movements in the water.
Thus it is that the creatures which were loathsome before are
now seen as beautiful They are seen to be as happy in their life
as man is in his:
o happy living thingsl no tongue

Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gushed from my heart,

And I blessed them unaware;

Sure IDJ? kind saint took pity on me,

And I blessed them unaware. 1

The spontaneous response of the Mariner's soul to beauty awakens

in his heart a feeling of love for all created things, and he
comes to realize that
He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and s{~ll;

1. Poems, p.198, 11282-87.

 For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all. 1
Thus the treatment of the lower animals as presented in the An­
cient Mariner shows the importance of all life and the close
relationship that Coleridge felt to exist between man and animal.
Such kinship between man and animal is revealed in arlother
way in a little poem, The £ayen, in which the bird is given ex­
periences, feelings, and thoughts similar to those of man. The
story is told from the point of view of the raven, and it shows
the sadness and despair that the animal world is made to _suffer
at the hands of thoughtless or unfeeling man. An e~planation of
the story will serve to show how Coleridge has, in this poem,
humanized the raven.
The raven buries an acorn on the bal~ of a great river.
After many years he returns with his mate and finds that the
acorn has grown into a fine tall oak tree. Then the building
of a nest in the top of the oak and the hatching of a brood of
young birds follow. The happiness of the parent birds in their
home in the tree-top is pictured. But the happiness does not
last long, for the felling of the tree by the Woodman destroys
the nest and kills the young birds. The mother bird dies of
a broken heart. His great loss causes the raven to feel very
bitter toward man who has been responsible for it. Later, he
hovers over the ship that has been made from the oak, rejoic­
lng in the fierce storm that seems to be about to shake the

1. Poemg, p.209, 11.614-17.

vessel to pieces. At last, when the ship sinks and the men
perish, tIle raven exults in the thought that his loss has been
revenged. In the closing lines of the poem the bird speaks to
Death, who is returning from tbe scene of destruction, to thawt
him for
this treat: 1
They had taken his all, and Revenge it was sweetl
In the treatment of natural objects, then, as here presented by
Coleridge, the animal is made to share the experiences, feelings,
thoughts, and actions of man.

Poems, p.17l, 11.43-44.

 CHAPTER III

THE LYRICAL TREATMENT OF NATURE

Coleridge's chief concern in his treatment of nature, as

has already been suggested in the preceding chapter, 1s not
simply in a full and direct portrayal of the object or scene
from the external world, but rather in the effect of that ob­
ject or scene upon his own soul. The consideration of the na­
ture poems which thus emphasize tho sUbjective response of the
poet to the external object of scene brings us to the lyrical
treatment of nature by Coleridge, by which is meant the expres­
sion of the feeling that the object arouses in him, rather than
a direct image of the object itself.

(1) Interest of Coleridge in his Own Emotions

Coleridge is the most sUbjective of all the Romanticists.

He is interested in his own feallngs and enjoys his own emo­
tional states. He even thinks about how he should feel in cer­
tain situations and endeavors to feel as he should. He is al­
ways setting his mind to think about itself, and is of the opin­
ion that "deep thinking is attainable only by a man of deep
 1
feeling, ,ana that all truth is a species of revelation". So it
is that Coler~dge takes the reader into his own inner dream world
where he reveals the workings of his own soul. What, then, are
the general characteristics of his creative spirit which ~re so
revealed?
First, as the temperament of Coleridge is romantic, it is
of his emotional disposition that we learn. So much, in fact,
do his feelings mean to him that he pampers himself to develop
his emotions, he tells us, in his Retleotioni 2B Raving Lef~

~ flace Q£ Retirement. In thinking about the luxurious sen­

sations afforded him when living in the cottage at Clevedon,
he wonders if it was right
That I should dream away the entrusted hours

On rose-leaf beds, pampering the coward heart

With feelings all too delicate for use. 2

Again, it is a sense of the happiness of the poet, rather than

a portrait of Sara or a description of the scene, that we catch
as he sits by his wife in this same jasmine-covered cottage,
while they watch the darkening clouds and the evening star as
it shines fl)rth:
How exquisite the scents
Snatched from yon beanfieldJ and the world §Q hushedJ
The stilly murmur of the distant Sea
Tells us of silence. 3
Throughout all his poetry it is the emotional response, the
effect of the outer stimulus upon his soul, in which Coleridge
is interested. Loss of his power to feel the beauty of the

1. Symons, Arthur, The Romantic Movement in English Poetry,

p.128.
2. Poems, p.107, 11.46-48.
3. ~ Eolian ~, ~, p.lOO, 11.9-12.
 31

1
world means the loss of his creative imagination.
Next, we learn that the emotional response of Coleridge
is frequently of a quiet, dreamy character. We see how the poet
loves to place himself in some environment of beauty, submit
his mind to the suggestions of the time and place, and fall,
as it were of free will, into a reverie in which-his thoughts
and images meander stream-like at their own pleasure. There
are many direct references to his dreamy disposition in his
poems. The music of the ~olian harp puts him in the same mood,
he says, as when out dreaming on the hill-side at noon:
Wbilst through my half closed eye-lids I behold
The sunbeams dance, like diamonds, on the main,
and tranquil muse upon tranquility;
Full many a thought, uncalled and undetain'd,
And many idle flitting phantasies,
Traverse my indolent and passive brain. 2
In Reflections Qll Having Left a Place of Retirement, the poet
refers to his mind as one that I1waking loves to dream", and
the small and silent dell 1s pictured as the ideal place in
which to steal away from the noisy world, and
"In a half sleep dream of better worlds". 3
Finally, we learn that the sequences of thought and feel­
ing are not always of this meditative, dreamy type, but that
they are often of a spasmodi-c passionate kind. Such is the case
in ~ Ni~htingale, where a tumultuous, easily-excited nature
is seen, and in ~ Lime-Tree Bower My Prison, where the poet
describes the sUdden joy he feels when he notes the beauty of

1. Cf. Dejection: An ~, p.366, 11.82-86.

2. Poems, p,~lOl, 11.36-41.
3. Fears in bolitude, Ibid, p.257, 1. 26.
 32

the rich colors and the play of light in the nook in which he
is sitting. In the latter poem his feelings change quickly from
a pensive, dreamy state to one of happiness. He has been sad
because of his being prevented from going on a walk with his
friends, but now, as-he notes the beauty of the little leafy
bower in which he is sitting, he says:
A delight

Comes sudden on my heart, and I am glad

As I myself were therel 1

In these illustrations Coleridge is seen to be interested

in his own f~elings, and in the explanation of his own emotion­
al response to scenes and incidents from the outer world. In
other poems, where he does not refer directly to his feelings,
his interest in the workings of his inner soul is still seen.
Here he reveals his emotional nature indirectly by maKing his
characters reflect his temperament. Both Genevieve and the
Mariner share the emotional nature of their creator. So it
is with the other characters that Coleridge has drawn. He
has left no really human characters such as are found in Words­
worth. The reason for this is, of course, that Coleridge is an
1ntrospectlYe rather than a descriptive artist. He lives with
his own thoughts and fancies in dell or en uI)}a1'ld. It is of
these, whether the theme be of nature or of man, that the poet
loves to tell.

1. Poems, p.180, 11.43-45.

 (2) Coleridge's Philosophy of Nature
It is not the aim here to give a complete analysis of
Coleridge's philosophy of nature but only to show the chief
characteristics of his views of nature as they are reflected
in his poetry. The two phases of his philosophy which we shall
conaider are (a) the mystical interpretation of nature, and (2)
the relationship of nature to man.

(a) Mystical Interpretation of Nature

We have seen with what skill Coleridge could portray the
delicate and minute phases of natural phemomena. Although
these various phenomena do not lose their full value as sen­
sation in his descriptive treatment, yet there is in Coleridge
a tendency to pass beyond the sense impressions of nature to
its indwelling spirit, to construct out of the data furnished
by the senses a meaning intelligible to the spirit. His imag­
ination, never stirred greatly by the outward, material aspect
of things, was ever penetrating behind and beyond mere out­
ward appearances to thE hidden presence which informs all na­
ture. In an early poem, The DestinY .Q!:. Nations, Coleridge
clearly refers to this tendency when, in explaining what free­
dem of man is, he says:
But chiefly this, him First, him-Last to view
Through meaner powers and secondary things
Effulgent, as through clouds that veil his blaze.
For all that meets the bodily sense I deem
Symbolical, one mighty alphabet
For infant minds~ and we in this low world
i'laced with our backs to bright Heality,
That we may learn with young unwounded ken
 The substance from its shadow. Infinite Love,

~bose latence is the plenitude of All,

Thou with retracted beams, and self-eclipse

Veiling, revealest thine eternal Sun. 1

An instance of his looking beyond the forms of sens~ impres­

sion to their spiritual reality is seen in ~ passage from ~

~ Tree-Bower ~ Prison, where he recalls how he has stood

in the presence of a beautiful scene "silent with swimming
sense n and
gazing round
On the wide landscape', ga.ze till all doth seem
Less gross than bodily; and of such hues
As veil the Almighty Spirit, when yet he makes
Spirits perceive his presence. 2
Coleridge's belie£ that an inner spirit, veiled by the external,
material aspect of things, pervades all nature and gives life to
it bears some~elation to that of Shelley's, but there is this
difference: whereas in Shelley the spirit of nature is self­
existent, in Coleridge it is conceived of as being divine, as
coming from God. "Glory to Thee ll , he cries,
Father of Earth and Heavenl

All-conscious Presence of the Universel

Nature's vast ever-acting Energyl

In will, in deed, Impulse of All to AlII 3

(b) The Relationship of Nature to Man

To Coleridge, as we have seen, nature is ever alive in
God, but his idea of the life of nature as it is related to
man is not always the same. His two views in regard to this
relationship follow.

1. Poems, p.132, 11.15-26.

2. Ibid, p.180, 11.39-43.
3. The ~i§tiny ~ Nations, Ibid, p.146, 11.459-62.
 (1') The First View: The Spirit of Nature as Separate from
That of Man .
Coleridge, during a part of his life, adopts a view of
nature very much in keeping with Wordsworth's philosophy, name­
ly that nature is alive and has a separate spirit of her own
which can communicate with the soul of man. Through such com­
munication, nature can influence the life of man in many ways.
First, nature is a power which can influence the moral· life of
man. This belief is expressed in a little poem called The
J)nngean.

The idea of this poem is that a man who has committed a

crime can best be led to see his error through the influences
of love and beauty. Hence the prison is seen as a poor place
for the offender, a place where his soul will become hopeless­
ly deformed. He is sick in spirit and can be healed only through
sweet and kindly influences. Nature, which sheds such influ­
ences on man, is believed to be wiser than the human being in
her treatment of the one who has gone astray. The poet points
out nature's method of treatment in these lines:
With other ministrations thou, 0 Naturel

Healest thy wandering and distemper'd child:

Thy pourest on him thy soft influences.

Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets,

Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters,

Till he relent, and can no more endure

To be a Jarring and dissonant thing,

Amid this general d&nce and minstrelsy;

But, bursting into tears, wins back his way,

His angry spirit heal1d and harmoniz'd

By the benignant touch of Love and Beauty. 1

1. Poems, p.185, 11.20-30.

Thus nature, with its soft, gentle, healing powers, can lead man
to see his folly; it is a power which can uplift the morals of
man.
Again, nature may awaken a response in the heart by way
of the thoughts that arise in the mind when one is in her pres­
ence. Such is the experience which the poet relates in his
Fears !n Solitude, where he beholds in nature the image of a
perfect human society, which converses with his mind and gives
it
1
"A livelier impulse and a dance of thoughtJ"
His musing in the quietness of nature has also softened h.is
heart. He has received from her tenderer and kinder feelings,
and is "grateful", as he says,
that by nature's quietness

And solitary musings, all my heart

Is softened and made worthy to indulge 2

Love and the ·thoughts that yearn for human kind.

Next that nature has the power to calm and soothe the
troubled spirit or disturbed feelings of man finds expressiun
in ~lY of Coleridge's poems. In This Lime-Tree Bower My
Prison, the poet marks much that "soothes" him in the little
nook which he has thought of as his prison, and comes to re­
alize that
Nature ne'er deserts the wise and pure;

No plot so narrow, be but Nature there,

No waste so vacant, but may well employ

Each faculty of sense, and keep the heart

Awake to Love and Beauty. 3

1. foems, p.263, 1.220.

2. ~, p.263, 11.229-32.
3. IbId, p.181,11.60-65.
In The Nightingale Coleridge tells how his child, who has awak­
ened in a rretful mood, is calmed when he sees the moon•. He
"hushed at once",
I
"Suspends his sobs and laughs most silently".
And of the small and silent dell, pictured in his Fears !n Sol­
itude, the poet says,
2
"Ohl 'tis a qUiet spirit-healing nook".
Finally, Coleridge believes in the educative influence of
nature. He believes that the ~hild may be educated and molded
spiritually by association with the beautirul and noble forms
or nature. This thought rinds expression in the passage from
Frost at M14nlgbt which pertains to his plans ror his own child:
But thou, my babel shalt wander like a breeze
By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags
or ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds,
ibich image in their bulk both laKes and shores
And mountain crags: so shalt thou see and hear
The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible
or that eternal language, which thy God
Utters, who rrom eternity doth teach
Himself in all, and all things in himself.
Great universal Teacherl he shall mould
Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask. 3
The education here is a spiritual one. The child learns of
God through the "lovely shapes and sounds" of nature. Nature
thus if relt to have a religious value.
It is not the child alone that nature may educate. She
has a valuable· lesson for the poet who will surrender himself
to her influences. His fame, in this way, Coleridge says, may
come to share in nature's immortality. His work will make na-

I. Poems, p.267 / _II.102-03.

2.nJ],p.257, .u..12.
3. Ibid,p.242, 11.54-64.
 1
ture lovel.ier and fl:1tself be loved like nature".
Nature, then, as treated thus far in Coleridge's poetry,
is thought of as having a distinct spirit of :1ts own which can
communicate with the suul of man. By such communication man's
l:1fe is ennobled and enriched. This is Coleridge's first idea.

(2') Later V:1ew: Nature as the Reflection of Man's Soul

Coleridge's belief in the power of external nature to heal,
guide,and inspire, represented in such poems as The Nightin­
~, Frost at Midnight, !h!£ Lime-Tree Bower My Prison, and
Fears in Solitude was entertained during the period of his close
association with Wordsworth at Nether stowey. But even at this
time Coleridge cares much less for objects as objects than Words-
worth. When in the presence of natural beauty he is always turn­
ing his thoughts in upon himself. So it is not surprising to
find that Coleridge's idea of nature as it is related to man
changes shortly after the Nether Stowey period.
From the thought that nature has a separate soul of its
own Coleridge now changes to the idea that we (mankind) build
up the world of external nature from ourselves. That which we
call nature lives only in us; it is we who make it and it can
only be called alive because we are alive. And when we receive
impressions from it we receive not something distinct from us
but oUr own thoughts. This idea finds expression in a poem o~

1799, Lines Written !ll ~ Album at Elbingerode, in the Hartz

1. ~ Nightingale, p. 265, 11.24-34.

Forest. Here the influence of nature on us draws its main power
over us from the spirit that contemplates it, as these lines
show:
for I had found

That outward forms, the loftiest, still receive

Their finer influence from the Life within;-­

Fair cyphers else: fair, but of import vague

Or unconcerning. 1

The attitude expressed in this earlier poem is a fore­

runner of the more definite statement of his philosophy in
these lines from peJect~onJ An ~:

I may not hope from outward forms to win 2

The passion and the life, whose fountains are within.
The theory that the life of nature comes from the soul within
is explained more fully in this stanza from the same poem:
o Ladyl we receive but what we give,

And in our life alone does Nature live:

Ours is her wedding garment, ours ber shroudl

And would we aught behold, of higher worth,

Than that inanimate cold world allowed

To the poor loveless ever-anxious crOWd,

AhJ from the soul itself must issue forth

A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud

Enveloping the Earth-­

And from the soul itself must there be sent

A sweet and potent voice, of its own birth,

Of all sweet sounds the life and elementJ 3

Coleridge thus still thinks of nature as having a living spirit,

but it is the human soul of the watcher that fills the world
with life. All joy of the senses comes from the soul within;
all the rapture we feel in the presence of external nature, then,
amounts to this:

1. Poems, p.315, 11~16-20.

2. Ibid, p. 36.1, 1~5-46.
3. Ibid, p.365, 11.47-58.
 1
"We in ourselves rejoice".

(3') Final View

The belief expressed in his Dejection: AQ Ode is usually
thought to characterize Coleridge's nature creed throughout the
succeeding years of his life. There is evidence in his later
poetry, however, that this is not entirely true. In the few
poems he wrote, when upon occasion he recaptured the bId power
of song, he does not always seem so sure that nature can give
to the soul of rr~n only what it receives from it, that it is
the reflex of man's soul. In a little poem, To Nature, written
in 1815, he seems to feel that nature has much to give to those

who love her. Here he speaks of his own "deep, heartfelt, in­
2
ward joy" in all created things, and tells of the "lessons of
love and earnest piety" he finds in the leaves and flowers about
3
him. 'This attitude will be seen to be very much the s~rne as that
of his earlier days, namely that nature has a soul apart which
can influence the life of man.
Then too, many of the passages from the notes of Coleridge
published in the Anima Poetae set forth in a most definite and
clear way his view of nature at this later period of his life.
This one, which may be taken as representative of his expres­
sions concerning nature, shows that he has not lost fai~h in

the power of nature to heal and soothe the spirit of man. "She",
he says,

1. loems, p.366, 1.72.

2. Ibid, p.429, 11.2-3.
3. Ibid, p.42B, 11.4-5.
 is the preserver, the treasurer of our joys. Even in sick­
ness and nervous diseases, she has peopled our imagination with
lovely forms which have sometimes' overpowered the inward pain
and brought with them their old sensations. And even when all
men have seemed to desert us and the friend of our heart has.
passed on, with one glance from his "cold disliking eye"--yet
even then the blue heaven spreads it out and bends over us, and
the little tree still shelters us under its plumage ~s a second
cope, a domestic firmament, and the low creeping gale will sigh
in the heath-plant and soothe us by sound or sympathy till the
lulled grief lose itself in fixed gaze on the purple heath­
blossom, till the present beauty becomes a vision of memory. 1
Although, then, at the time Coleridge wrote the Dejection:
An Qde, he felt that external nature had lost its beauty because
2
of the decay of his creative soul, the "beauty-making power" of
the eartb, yet there were times in his later life when he was
delighted by the beauties not bestowed by his imagination but
existing in nature ppart, times when his spirit was calmed and
healed by the influences of external nature.

(3) Personal Response of Coleridge to Nature

That Coleridge was little interested in the objective
treatment of nature as a theme has been show~. He was so deep­
ly absorbed in his own thoughts and feelings that his mind did
not dwell upon the external object for long at a time. His
chief interest was in showing the effect of that object upon
his own soul. Consequently it is in the form of the lyric
that his treatment of nature finds an expression most char­
acteristic of his creative genius, for this type of poetry
is marked by an interweaving. of the sUbj ect~:.ve with the ob­
jective. In it there is the portrayal of images drawn from

1. Anima Poetae, Coleridge, E.B., p.246.

2. Poems, p.365, 1.63.
sense perception of external objects plus the e~ression of
the deep em0t~.onc;.1 response cf' the poet to those ects. The
response tells of the poet's ovm personal reaction to some
phase or form vf nature. It may be that the stimulus fro
the outer world arouses a certain feeling in the poet or it
1
may set him to thinking. Examples of both types of respon~e
are found in Coleridge's nature l:,Trics-. Let us no-·;') turn to a
study of those lyrics in order to see the character of his
personal responses tv external nature as there treated.

(a) Response of the Feelings

In Coleridge there is always a deep sense of juy in ev­
erything beautiful. Frequently it is a sight or suWld froiD
nature that a'lj;la~{ens this feeling 1n him. In his poem The
Nightingale he tells of the joy that fills his soul upon hear­
ing the song of this "most musical, most melancholy" bird. But,
so happy is the poet, that he refutes the conventional melan­
choly associated with the nightingale in literature ano. thinKs
that
2
"In nature there is nothing melancholy".
His high-pitched excitement and thrilling joy are reflecte(
in his description of the song:
'Tis the merry Nightingale

That crowds, and hurries,·and precipitates

With fast thick fi&rble his delicious notes,

As that he were fearful that an April night

Would be too short for him to utter forth

His love-Chant, and disburthen his full soul

1. See "Nature as a Lyrical Stimulus" in The Vital Interbre­

tations of English Literature by Harrison, 'John B., p.se.
2. Poem~, p.~64, 1.15.
 1
Of all its music.
The bird itself', pictured as sitting "giddily" on a twi.e: \fhich
is swaying in the breeze and tuning its song to the motion, is
2
"Like tipsy Joy that reels with tossing head".
Next, the poet's excessive joy is reflected in his description
of no.t-..lre • All nature, like himself, is seen to be enj oying
the beautiful song. The moon emerging from behind a cloud,
;)
"hath awakened earth and sky with one sensation", and the floOO­
ing of the scene with moonlight causes the nightingi;;.les to burst
4
forth in "choral minstrelsy". Finally, the poet thinks of bow
greatly pleased his young chilrl would be could he hear the song.
In his keen and passionate delight, he portrays both nature and
tIle child as experiencing sensations similar to his own. Thus
the stimulus from nature--the song of the bird-- so stirs the
feelings that they in turn give a heightened emotional quality
to the description of the external world of nature. The objec­
tive scene and the subjective response are unified by the emo­
tional atmosphere of joy.
But much of the time the mood in which Coleridge saw na­
5
ture 'Nas one of saddened feeling--"a wan and heartless moud ll •
In the poetry 'Nhich reveals this feeling "the landscape", Caz­
amain says, "is interwoven with the feelings in accordance with
an irresistible association, the wholly sUbjectIve quality of
6
which he foleridg~ perceives". Although i t has C:I. broader sig­

1. Poems, p.265, 11.43-49.

2. Ibid, p.26b, 1.86.
3. ~, 11.78-7~.
4. ~, 1.80.
5. Dejection: An Ode, ~, p.364, 1.25.
6. Legouis and Cazamain, QQ.ill., p.1044.
nificance than just the lyrical treatment of nature, the Dejec­
tion: An ~ is the best example of such treatment. The poem
is a self-analysis of the poet's creative gea1us and an ~pla-
1
nation of the loss of his "shaping spirit of imagination", yet
it shows Coleridge's state of feeling as it is related to ex­
ternal nature at the time of his writing. Here he paints a
night scene under the spell of his dejection, and every image
is colored by the feelings of his inner soul. He can see the
delicate and beautiful aspects of nature which have formerly
stirred his feelings such as the crescent moon, the clouds that
2
"give away their motions to the stars", the blue sky, and the
3
sunset bars, but it is with a "blank eye", for he cannot feel
their beauty. His dejection arises from the fact that these
beautiful forms of nature do not stir and thrill him as tiley
were wont to do in the past. Thus he expresses his lament:
I see them all so excellently fair 4

I see, not feel, how beautiful they are.

A third feeling aroused in Coleridge by a stimulus from

n~ture is love of liberty. He treats this the~e in his France:

An Ode, in which he recants his faith in the French Revolution.
The poem is divided into sections each of which represents a
phase of Coleridge's changing attitude toward the Revolution.
The ppose argwnent gives a statement of the thought of each
division. The argument for the first stanza reads:

1. Poems, p.36£, 1.86.

2. Ibid, p.364, 1.32.
3. Ibid, 1.30
4. ~, 11.37-38.
 45

An invocation to those objects in nature the contempla­

tion of which had inspired the Poet with a devotional. love
of liberty. 1
!be poem then opens with a calIon the clouds, the sun, the
sky--all that in nature is most free--to bear witness
With what deep worship I have still adored
The spirit of divinest Liberty •. 2
Stanzas two, three, and four, show Coleridge 1 s different
feelings toward the Revolution. First, with his love of lib­
erty already awakened by nature, it was with great enthusiasm
that the poet at the outset hailed the principles of the French
Revolution, but as the war for human liberty becomes a war of
conquest, his revolutionary ardor dies away. Finally, when
Switzerland is invaded by France, the supposed liberator of
humanity, Coleridge completely loses his faith in France.
Such disillusionment, however, h~s not caused his love of lib­
erty to decfease. The last stanza is a noble address to lib­
erty, in which it is pictured as "the guide of homeless winds
3
and playmate of the waves". In his search for liberty, he now
turns, he says, to the elements of nature where he first felt
her spirit:
And there I felt theel-~on that sea-cliff 1 s verge,
Vfuose pines, scarce travelled by the breeze above,
Had made one murmur with the distant surgel
Yes, while I stood and gazed, my temples bare,
And shot my being through earth, sea, and air,
Possessing all things with divinest love,
o Libertyl my spirit felt thee there. 4
Thus God's beautiful mountains and forests and streams awaken
the love of liberty in the soul of the poet.

1.
2.
tgias, p.244.
, p.244, 11.20-24.
3. ~, p.247, 1.98.
4. ~, p.247, 99-105.
 Nature which begins by· inspiring Coleridge's love of lib­
erty, later becomes a stimulus to patriotism. It is not a love
of nature in general. but a love of English nature that he gives
voice to in his poem Fears !U ~olitude. He is led to his thoughts
of England through his fear for her safety in a time of national
struggle and alarm. Sitting alone in one of the quiet, beauti­
ful dells of the Quantocks, he thinks of how much these quiet
dales, hills, lakes. rocks, and seas of England mean to him.
Such thoughts awaken the most deep and tender feelings of love
for his native land in his heart. This patriotic sentiment is
expressed in these beautiful lines:
o native Britaint 0 my Mother Islet

How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and holy

To me, who from thy lakes and mountain-hills,

Thy clouds, thy quiet.dales, thy rocks and seas,

Have drunk in all my intellectual life)

All sweet sensations, all ennobling thoughts,

All adoration of the God in nature,

All lovely and all honourable things,

Whatever makes this mortal spirit feel

The joy and greatness of its future being?

Therel±ves nor form nor feeling in ulY soul

Unborrowed from my countryt 1

In the close of this passionate outburst of patriotic feeling

his "Mother Isle" is seen as sacred--it is his magnificent
temple in which he has sung the praises of God.
Running throughout his nature poems there are many ev­
idences that much of Coleridge's delight in nature was de­
2
rived from the "religious meanings" that he found in the world
of external objects. This feeling of religious worship finds

1. Poems. p.2S2. 11.182-U3.

2. Fears III Solitude. Ibid. p.257, 1.2~.
 47

its fullest expression in h1s beautiful lyric, HKma Before §yn­

rise 1n ~ hJ& .Q.t:. Chamuuni, 1n which the beauty and grandeur
of Mount Blanc arouse in Coleridge a sense of the power and
glory of God. As the poet gazes upon the dread and awful form,
he is so deeply impressed that he forgets the mountain itself
1
and in a trance-like state worships the lJlnvisible alone". But
he feels that he must do more than worship in this silent., pas­
sive way. He must sing the praise of GOd. Then he. calls upon
the mount and all the life about it--the wild torrents, the ice­
plains, the pine-groves, the lovely blue flowers, the snows,
and the lightnings--to jOin in his Hymn, so that they all may
2
"utter forth God, a.."'ld fill the hills with praise". The climax
of feeling is reached in the image of the mountain "rising like
~ cloud of incense from the earth" to tell the silent sky, the
stars, and the rising sun that
3
"Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God".

(b) Response of Thought

A state of thought, which often characterizes Coleridge's
response to nature, lliay be reached through the feelings which
are first stimulated. Such is the case in his France: An Qde,
discussed above, in which Coleridge's disappointment in the
failure of the French Revolution to bring liberty to mankind
and his own ~perience of finding liberty in the elements of

1. Poems, p.377, 1.16.

2. Ibid, p.080, 1.69.
3. Ibid, p.380, 1.85.
nature, lead him to believe that liberty can be found by the
individual in nature alone and not in human society.
In his poem The Blossoming of the SolitarY ~-Tree

Coleridge's thoughts of his own life are awakened by a phe­

nomenon from nature. Although the stimulus which gives rise
to his thought is not mentioned in the poem, in an introduc­
tory note he tells of a statement that he has read about a
date-tree which "year after year put forth a full show of
blossoms, but never produced frUit, till a branch from another
date tree had been conveyed from a distance of some hundred
1
leagues". This statement leads Coleridge to think of the in­
completeness of his own life. He has enjoyed many g1fts--im­
agination, honorable aims, communication with the great minds
of the past through his reading, a childish delight in little
things, the love of nature in all her forms--but all these
cannot fill bis heart with gladness, for he has no one to share
them with. He needs love and companionship to make his life
complete. Why, he cries,
2
"was I :nade for Love and Love denied to me?"
In his treatment, then, he thinks of his own 11fe experience
as being parallel to a phenomenon of nature.
But the thoughts called up in the mind by the outward stim­
ulus may be of the contrast of his life with some phase or form
of nature. This manner of response is illustrated in Work With­
QY1 Hope, in which the various activities and busy life uf the

1. Poems, p.395.
2. Ibid, p.397, 1.78.
little creatures of nature in early spring cause the poet to think
of the idleness of his own life. "All Nature", he says, "seems
at work"-­
Slugs leave their lair-­

The bees are stirring--birds are on the wing-­

And Winter slumbering in the open air t

Wears on his smiling face a dream of bpringl 1

Then this scene from nature brings this sad thought to Col­
eridge's mind:
And I the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing. 2
Again, the response of the mind to the stimulus from nature
may be one of moralizing. Of such nature are the thoughts that
rise in Coleridge's mind when he sees a little flower that has
peeped through the ground in the "dark, frieze-coated, hoarse,
3
teeth-chattering" month of February in his poem On Observing ~

Blossom on the First of February. ,The plight of the flower which

has been flattered by a soft gentle breeze into coming forth when
the cold wind may come and destroy it at any moment is seen as
a symbol of human life. It is much like the fate of the girl
who in the bloom of life falls a victim to consumption, or of
Chatterton, "the wondrous boy", who is compared to an amaranth
which l1earth scarce seemed to own" till disappointment and wrong
4
f1beat it to earth", or of the hope of Poland, "killed in the open­
5
ing bud". Human life, he thinks, is subjected to the same un­
certainty, to the same danger of untimely blight or death as that

1. Poems, p.447, 11.1-4.

2. Ibid, 11.5-6.
3. 'Ibid, p.148, 1~3
4. Ibid, p.149, 11.13-15.
5. ~, 11.16-17.
of the flower which he has observed.
Finally, Coleridge's response to nature as he sits in, some
quiet or secluded spot where the beauties and "goings-on" of
external nature are keenly felt, frequently takes the form of
meditation. The poeIns which reveal such a response are marked
by certain characteristics that tend to set them apart in the
field of nature lyrics. They are composed in a dreamy, half­
awake state of feeling in which there is a gentle interweaving
of the natural scene and the human thought. Nature is painted
in a pensive mood, for the mood of nature harmonizes with, that

of the poet. The spirit of solitude is of the essence of such

poems. Frost at Midnight, the finest poem of this group, will
best illustrate Coleridge's meditative response to external
nature.
This poem is marked by a most delicate blending of the ex­
ternal world and the world of the poet's thought. Coleridge,
alone at midnight sitting by the cradle of his sleeping child,
is lett, he tells us, to "that solitude, which suits abstruse
1
musings". He then calls attention to the hUSh of all nature:
'Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wOiJd,
This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood,
With all the numberless goings-on of life,
,U4ible as dreams! the thin blue flame
Lies on my low-burnt fire, and. quivers not;
Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,
Still flutters there, the sale unQuiet thir~. 2
From this solitude and stillness of the external night scene,
Coleridge passes to thoughts of himself. The motion of the

1. Poems, p.240, 11.5-6.

B. Ibid,11.8-l6.
fluttering film of soot, he thinks, bears some relation to him
"who lives". The "sole unquiet thing" in the outer scene be­
l
comes a "companionable form" to him. In this way the transi­
tion from the outer to the inner world is made. From thoughts
of the present his mind wanders back over his past life, when
a lonely, h0mesick boy at school, he had dreamed of his birth­
2
place and hoped, as he gazed upon the "fluttering stranger" on
the grate for the arrival of some member of his fawily. Now
3
after deploring his own education "'mid cloisters dim", Col­
eridge thinks that his child, sleeping so quietly 1h its cradle
by him, shall be spared a like experience. He .hopes that he
may have an upbringing with nature. thus the poet returns to
the contemplation of nature with which he began. The poem ends
with a general view of the whole year in miniature presented by
the· selection of a striking picture representative of each sea­
son. It is one of the most beautiful descriptions of nature
found in all the poetry of Coleridge. Every part of the year,
he thinks, will be dear to his child,
Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
or mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch
Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet Moon. 4
The qUiet meditative mood of the poet harmonizes perfectly with

1. Poems, p.240, 1.19.

2. Ibid, p.241, 1.26.
3. Ibi~, p.242, 1.52.
4. Ibid, p.242, 11.66-74.
 52

the hush and stillness of the external scene; as he watches all

the secret ministry of th~ frost painting its pictures in the
outer world, he paints in dreamy reverie the scenes of his inner
life.
 CHAPTER IV

THE TREATMENT OF NATURE AS A BACKGROUliD

~ben nature is neither the theme, directly described in

and for herself, nor a subject for lyrical response, it may still
be treated as a background. In such instances, the treatment of
nature is not the primary concern of. the poet; it is subordinate
to the human element. Nevertheless, it has an important func­
tion in the total effect of the poem. It may help in the por­
trayal of character, or it may contribute to a clearer concep­
tion of the incidents in a story. We now turn to a consider­
ation of these uses of the natural background as they are
treated in the poetry of Coleridge.

(1) The Natural Background as Related to Character

TIThe natural background against which a character at one

moment of his career may be placed, may be emotionally colored
or charged with feeling radiating from the human center in the
1
picture". The scene from nature, then, as viewed thro~gh the
eyes of the human figure serves as a means of corrveying the
mood, thoughts, or feelings of the character. An instance of

1. Harrison, John S., QQ. Cit., p.65.

this use of nature as a background is f~und in Coleridge's
Lewti.
In this poem the background is a night scene and the human
character is a lover who comes out into the night in an effort
to forget the girl he loves as she has been unkind to him. In
every form and feature of the night scene which he beholds, he
sees a likeness to Lewti or to his love for her. Thus th2 rock
as it shines in the moonlight through the leafy branches of the
yew tree reminds him of the forehead and dark hair of Lewti. He
brushes away this image as the thought that "Le-",ti is not kind"
returns. The next set of images reflectsthe lover's sadness.
First he beholds a thin pale cloud which as it nears the moon
becomes brighter and brighter until it is or a rich amber color.
So the joy he feels in Lewti's presence, he thinks, can give
color and life to his pale face. Then the passing of the cloud
from the moon finds a similar parallel in his o~~ experience.
The cloud goes mournfully; all joy flees from its breast; it
becomes as white as his face will be vn1en he is dying for the
love of Lewti. Finally, with this image of death in his mind,
he thinks of a little delicate cloud vapor, which he now sees,
as being the shroud of some fair lady who has died of a broken
heart. A change from this sad pensive mood is revealed in the
last scene from nature. The beauty and graceful movements of
two swans, as they are seen gliding smoothly along the water,
greatly delight the lover. In their happiness he sees a
s~'-mbol of his own feelings could he only behold Lewti as she
now lies sleeping. His mind is now somewhat soothed; there
is a feeling that all may yet be well; tomarrow Lewti "may be
1
kind". Thus the various scenes from nature reflect the chang­
ing moods and thoughts of the human figure in the picture.
In his treatment of nature as a background for character,
Coleridge in one poem, The Old Man of the ~, closely ap­
proaches a manner of treatment common in Wordsworth. I refer
to the treatment of the human character as blended with the
landscape. ~n Coleridge's poem an old man of the mountains
tells the sad story of the life of his daughter. First, he
pictures her as a young girl when she roams over the moun­
~ains, happy and care free, seeking out the groves and nooks of
beauty or searching for some wild flower growing in the clefts
of the rocks. The outdoor life of the mountain is reflected
in her happy spirit and her graceful mcvements. She seems as
much a part of the mountain as the flowers, rOCKS, trees, or
mountain breezes. Of her, the father says that
Singing in woods or bounding o'er the lawn,
No blither creature hailed the early dawn. 2
The last of the poem tells of the sadness that comes into the
life of the girl, when overwhelmed at the news of her lover's
death, she loses her mind, and wandering amid the scenes she
had loved, now finds no delight except in the deep moan of the
tempest or the sigh of the ice-covered chasms. In this sad

state she continues to live outdoors both day and night until
she loses her life in a great mountain storm. Thus there is

1. Poems, p~ 256. 1~83.

2. ~, p.218, 11.17-18.
in this poem, throughout life and even in death, a blend of the
human character with the natural background.
The uses of nature as a setting for character found ~n the
two examples Just given, it should be explained, are rare in the
poetry of Coleridge, for his special field of interest lay out­
side the fanliliar facts and incidents of human life. He was not
interested primarily in character portrayal as such. The
characters he has left have very little distinct personality.
They reflect either the poet's own personality or his ideas of
the reaction of the human mind in general to certain situations
in life. In the explanation of his literary principles, Coleridge
makes the statement that he adopts "with full faith the prin­
t

ciple of Aristotle fl , that

the persons of poetry must be clothed with generic attri­
butes, with the Qommon attributes of the class; not with such
as one gifted individual might possibly possess, but such as
from his situation it is most probable beforehand that he
would possess. 1
In Coleridge's poems, then, in which there are incidents and
action, nature finds an important place as a background not. so
much for the portrayal of churacter as for the building up of
01 appropriate atmosphere for the action. It is to this use
of nature that we now turn.

(2) The Natural Background as Related to Action

The use of the natural setting to emphasize in the reader's
mind the incidents in the human s~ory is treated in three slight­

1. Biographia Literaria, XVII, p.33.

ly varying ways in Coleridge's ~he Three Graves, Ib& ~ 2l the
Ancient Mariner, ~ gh£istabel.
In the first of these poems the theme 1s psychological. It
concerns the effect on the imagination of an idea "violently and
suddenly impressed" upon it. In the workin~ut of this theme,
Coleridge shows the effect of a mother's horrible curse--the
curse brought about by the daughter's marriage to her own sweet­
heart, whom the mother had tried to take from her--upon the
minds of three people--her daughter, her son-in-law, and a young
girl, her daughter's friend. This curse drives them all insane.
An old sexton who has buried the mother and the two girls tells
the gloomy story. In order to make the horror of the curse more
impressive, Coleridge builds up an unpleasant atmosphere in keep­
ing with the theme.
Thus the story opens with a grave-yard scene which carries
with it many unpleasant associations. The dock. and nettles that
grow about the thorn tree under which the three are buried, the
toad that harbors in the place, and the fearful aspect of the
tree that continues to bloom despite the fact that its bark is
cut by ghosts each night--all contribute to a feeling of the
unwholesomeness of the situation. Again, the description of
the drizzly, misty atmospheric conditions of the outer world
is in keeping with the gloomy mind of Mary, who has been cursed
by her mother. Finally, the description of the wild, stormy
weather just before the curse which is to blight Ellen's life
takes place, arouses the feelings of the reader to a higher
pitch. Such lines as these~

The day was s~arcely like a day-­

The clouds were black outright; 1
or these:
The wind was wild against the glass
The rain did beat and b1oker;
The church tower swinging over head,
You scarce could hear the Vicari 2
portray an atnlosphere in harmony with the wicked thoughts and
withering curse to follow. Thus in this poem the natural back­
ground emphasizes in the reader's mind the effect of the inci­
dents in the human story.
Although ~he Three graves is a gloomy, morbid poem the
characters and incidents in it, with the exception of the
suggestion of the ghosts in the graveyard, are human. Such
is not the r1.ner and Christabel. Here
the supernatural element is dominant, and the natural back­
ground gives point or force to the human story through its
relationship to the supernatural. What purpose, then, does
the natural setting serve as it is related to the supernatural
incidents in these poems?
Some light may be thrown upon this question if we look at
the aim that Coleridge set for himself when he and liQrdsworth
were planning the composition of those poems which were later
published as the LYrical Ballads. Of their opinions upon poetry
and their poetic aims at this time, Coleridge gives this anal­
ysis in his Biographll Wterer1a:

1. Poems, p.276, 11.302-03.

2. ~, p.278, 11.306-09.
 During the first year that Mr. Wordsworth and I were neigh­
bours, our conversations turned frequently on the cardinal points
of poetry, the power of exciting the symp~thy of the reader by
a faithful adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of
giving the interest of novelty to the modifying colours of imag­
ination--the thought suggested itself ••• that a series of poems
might be written of two surts. In the one, th~ incid8nts and
agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural; and the ex­
cellence arrived at was to consist of interesting. the affec­
tions by a dramatic truth of such emotions as would naturally
accomp~ny such situations, supposing them real. And real in
this sense they have been to every human being who, from what­
ever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under
supernatural agency~ For the second class, sUbjects were to
be chosen from ordinary lite; the characters and incide~ts were
to be such, as will be found in every village and vicinity where
there is a meditative and feeling mind to seek after them, or to
notice them when they present themselves.
In this idea originated the plan of the LYric!l Ballads,in
which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to
persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet
so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and
a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of
imagination that willing suspension of disblief for the moment
which constitutes poetic faith. 1
Coleridge was, we see, to give a sense of realit~ to the
ideal. He chooses the supernatural as his field and sets out
to invest it with human interest and a "semblance of truth".
One means of giving this feeling of reality to his supernat­
uralism is by the introduction of imagery from the world of
external nature. This use of nature as a backgrotmd is best
illustrated in the Ancient Mariner.
In this poem the Mariner relates the experience he has

had With the supernatural when on a lonely sea voya~e. It

is a story of his crime at sea, his punishment by supernatural
powers, and his later repentance. Now the horror and suffer­
ing which the Mariner experiences is heightened in the reader's
mind because the strangeness and mystery are made to seem

1. B1Qiraphia L1teraria, XIVi pp.5-6.

real. As it has been said before, it is the blending of images
from the world of sense perception with those of a supernatural
character that makes the reader feel the reality ~f the unreal
as well as the real. An instance of such mingling of the real
with the weird may be seen in these lines:
TheSun l s rim dips; the stars rush out,

At one stride comes the dark,

With far heard whisper o'er the sea

Off shot the spectre bark; 1

or in these, in which the suggestion of the hoar-frost makes

all the magical element seem real:
Her beams bemocked the sUltry main,

Like April hoar-frost spread,

But where the ship's huge shadow lay,

The charm'd water burbt alway

A still and awful red. 2

~gain, these strange, unnatural sights and sounds of the el­

ements prior to the inspiriting of the ship's crew, which are
of the essence of the supernatural-­
And soon I heard· a roaring wind;

It. did not come anearj

But with its sound, it shook the sails,

That were so thin and sear.

The upper air burst into lifel

And a hundred fire flags sheen

To and fro they were hurried aboutl

The wan stars danced between; 3

are followed at the end of the song of the angelic spirits by

this delightful contrast from the real world of natural land­
scape:
It ceased; yet still the ship made on

A pleasant noise till noon,

1. Poems, p.195, 11.200-04.

2. Ibid, p.197, 11.267-71.
3. Ibid, p.199, 1~09-18.
 61

A noise like of a hidden brook

In the leafy month of June,
That to the ~leeping woods all night,
Singeth a quiet tune. 1
By such blending of the two sets of images the poet creates an
atmosphere outside the known world which becomes as real as that
of our natural world, yet retains a haunting strangeness. "Mead­
ows white with April hoar-frost, sweet with the winds of Spring,
glancing with myriads of filmy threads; pools with their rim of
whispering sedges; bird-notes and flute-notes--that is the im­
agery", Professor Lowes says, "which gives as we read the sense
of a known and familiar landscape, touched with the strangeness
2
of some unwonted play of light". He further points out that
Coleridge, in his description of the polar seas, because of
their "Wlassailable remoteness was free to smuggle into his
stanzas fiction upon fiction. Yet in place of that", he goes
on to say, "the most striking trait they actually show is an
3
astonishing fidelity to fact".
In this regard for truth in the descriptions of physical

phenomena, although in the midst of a world of wonders, lies,

in part, the secret of Coleridge's handling of the supernatur~l.

The feelings and the imag.Lnation of the reader are stirred by

this very real piece of unreb.lity. The wonderful experiences
of the Mariner are thus made more impressive because they are
made to seem very real.
In the Ancient Mariner the natural imagery is fused wlth

1. Poems, p.201, 11~367-72.

~. Lowes, John Livingston, The ~ to Xanadu, p.216.

3. Ibid, p.139.
the supernatural to give a ring of truth to the supernatural,
and thus heighten the effect of the human suffering in the mind
of the reader. In Christabel, although the effect produced by
the natural background as it is related to the human story, is
similar to that in the Ancient Mariner, the method of treatment
is different. Here the background consists wholly of im&gery
drawn from the world of nature, but selected so as to suggest
the supernatural. The picturesque appearance of natural ob­
jects and the strange atmospheric conditions depicted in the
"thin, grey cloud ll , with the full moan behind, but looking
I 2
"small and dull", the chill of the night, and. the green color
3
of the moss and mistletoe clinging to the old oak, illustrate
such use of natural imagery to excite the emotions of the
reader. By purely natural means the author is thus able to
awaken a feeling of suspense and foreb~ding in the reader's
mind. So it is by subtle hints and touches such as those
seen in the description of the atmosphere when the "lovely
lady" enters, in these lines~-

There is not wind enough to twirl

The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as daace it can,
Hanging so light and h~1ging so high,
On the to~most twig that looks up at the sky, 4
that the .feeling of approaching danger is intensified by de­
grees up to the working of the evil spell, wbere a sense of
vague horror at an unknown menace is felt in ~he hint that

1. Poems, p.216, 11.16-19.

2. ~, :1.15.
3. Ibid, 11.33-34.
4. Ibid, p.~17, 11.48-52.
5. Ibid, p.266, 11.300-07.
is given of the evil which befalls Christabel. Finally, the
attitude of the birds during the working of the spell, expressed
in these lines:
B,y tairn and rill,
The night-birds all that hour were still, 1
adds to the reader's sense of the greatness of the evil, of the
horror of the human experience.
The natural background may be said to have an emotional
value in each of the three poems just examined--The ~

Graves, Ihl B!m! of the Ancient Mariner, and Christabel--in

that in each instance it is a factor in impressing more deeply
upon the mind of the reader the effect of an incident or action
in the human story.

1. Poems, p.266, 11.306-0?

 64

CONCLUSION

In the preceding pages we have examined the subject of

nature in the poetry of Coleridge with respect to his tre~tment

of it as a descriptive theme, as a lyrical theme, and as a set­

ting or background.
We have shown that Coleridge was a gifted watcher of the
countenance of nature, that there was in him an extraordinary
attentiveness to the rare and minute phases of physical phe­
nomena, and that as a result of this faculty, his imagery is of
the Dlost delicate and subtle character. That the dreamy quality
of his imagination which was ever turning substances into phan­
tasms also contributed in a great measure to the delicacy and
illusiveness of his imagery' was seen. The field of his interest
in nature was seen to include landscape beaut~-, chiefl~' valued
for its broad prospect and its near view of the soft a.nd silent
dells; life of the animals, birds... and lower creatures, which
is felt to be closely related to that of man; and the broad,
elemental aspects of sea, sky,and atmospheric conditions.
Then, in the discussion of his lyrical treatillent of na­
ture the idea that Coleridge greatly enjoyed his own emoticns
and was interested in the reaction of his own soul to the out­
ward stimulus was stressed. It was seen that as a result of
such interest, his treatment of nature frequently takes the
form of the lyric, in which form some of his most exquisite
nature poetry is to be found. It was pointed out that to Col­
eridge the universe is always alive in the spirit of God, but
that his idea of the relation of nature to man is not always the
same. External nature is sometimes felt by bim to have a spirit
of its: own which can influence man, and at others to possess
beauty and life only as they are given to it by the human soul.
At last, i t was shown with what skill Coleridge has used
nature as a background, especially in his supernatural poems
in which the natural imagery serves to enhance the emotional
atmosphere of suspense, mystery, wonder,etc.
With this survey before us, what can we conclude as to the
distinct qualities that set Coleridge's treatment of nature
apart from that of the other writers of his age--an age in which
the poetry is filled with the love and interpretation of nature?
In th~ first place, Coleridge's descriptions of external nature
are pervaded by a fine sensuousness in which no other English
poet qUite resembles him. His touch has the voluptuous qual­
ity of Keats and the spiritual quality of Shelley. Although
Coleridge's images retain their full value as sensation, yet
they are pervaded with a dreamy semblance of something beyond
sensation. They are full of illusive suggestions.
In the' second place, Coleridge's mind was ,lured to rarer
and remoter phases of natural phenomena than that of his con­
temporaries. Consequently there is in much of his imager,y
particularly that employed for emotional effect in his super­
natural poems, a weirdness alid strangeness which stawps it dis­
tinctly as belonging to Coleridge.
 For both Wordsworth and Coleridge the universe was mys­
teriouslydivine, but Coleridge recognizes more fully than Words­
worth frequently does a distinction between God and the ·symbol­
ic language" which he uses to instruct and inspire mankind. A
sincere religious worship of God, who created <ill tile beauties
of the earth, is sung thrOl:ghout the pages of Coleridge's na:ture
poetry.
Another distinguishing characteristic is Coleridge's
dreamy perception of nature which is seen in the meditative
poems where nature is viewed through the half-closed eyes of
Slumber. From these poems, one can see that much of Coleridge's
joy in the beauty of the world is the joy of dreaming. This
dreamy quality of his descriptions of nature is not shared by
any of his fellow-Romanticists.
In the next place, Coleridge reveals more fully than any
of the other Romanticists the workings of his own soul. His
own emotional response, the effect of the external scene or
object on himself, is a primary concern of Coleridge. His
failure to give a full, well-rounded description of the outer
world of nature is compensated for by the glimpse he gives us
of his inner dream world.
Finally, it is in the nature poetry of Coleridge that
the expression of love and sympathy for the lower animalfi i2
most marked. Although Wordsworth, Scott, and bhelley show
an interest in animal life, in Coleridge the life of the an­
imal---beast, bird, and the "happy living things l1 thut are not
human-- is seen as sacred because it comes from God as does the
life of man. The animal, to Coleridge, maKes up a part-of the
beauty of the universe and his deep love of this beauty never
fails him nor his sense of joy in it. His feeling of the im­
mortal spirit of Love in nature is reflected throughout the
whole of his nature poetry. The words of the Ancient Mariner
describe very well the attitude of Coleridge throughout his life
toward man, and bird, and beast--toward all the created things
of the universe:
o happy living thingsl no tongue

Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gushed from my heart,

And I blessed them unaware. 1

It is in these respects that Coleridge, akin to the other Roman­

ticists in his love of nature,has a place all his own in the na­
ture poetry of his age.

1. Poems, p.198, 11.282-85.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

pv+ee £! Coleridge:

Anima Poetae, Ed. Coleridge, Ernest Hartley, Heinemann, London,

1895. ­
BiOgr~1a Literar1a, Ed. Shawcross, J., The Cl<:.rendon Press,
o ord, 1907. Two vols.
Th~ ~v......w Coleridge, Ernest Hart-

On the Treatment Qt Nature

Coleridge, Ernest Hartley, "Samuel Thylor Coleridge" 1n Poets'

COuntry, Ed. Lang, Andrew, J.B.Lipp1ocott, Philadelphia,
1907.
Bl~nden, Edmund, Nature !s ~11Sh L1teratur e, Harcourt, Brace
and Company, New York, 929.
Harrison, John S., "Nature" 10 ~ Vital Interpretations .2£ Eng­
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Howitt, William, Homes ~ Haunts ~ British foetA, London, 1894.
Palgrave, Francis T., Landscape in PoetrI, The Macmillan Co.,
New York, 1897.

lliograpbical llaterlal:

Caine, Hall, Life Q£ Samuel TaYlor Coleridge, London, 1887.

Campbell, James Dyke,~aph1cal Introduction to the Poetlga1
Works of samuel 0 Coleridge, The Macmillan Co., New
York, 1925.
Charpentier, John, Coler14ge, the Sublime Somnambulist, Trans­
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Fausset, Hugh I'Anson, S&muel TaYlor Coleridge, Har~ourt, Brace
and Co., New York, 1926.
 69

Traill, H.D., Col!.ridge, Macmillan and Co., London, 1898.

Critioal Piscussions:

Brooke, Stoprord, Introduction to The Golden ~ of Coleridge,

J.M. Dent, New York, 1906.
Courthope, C.B., "Coleridge" in A Histor~ 2f English Poetry,
Macmillan and Co., London, 1910. Vol. VI.
Dowden, Edward, "Coleridge" in New Stud1es 1!! Literature,
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1895.
Elton, Oliver, "Samuel Taylor Coleridge" in A SurveY .Qf. Eng11sb
Literature, (1771-1830) Edw. Arnold, London, 15312. bovols.
Ga.rnett, Richard, "The PoetrJ-· of Coleridge" in Essays of iYl a­
Librarlan~ Hinemarul, London, 1901.

Legouis, Emile, and Cazamian, Louis, A ~i§t9rY ££ iPg1ish L1ter­

ature, Macmillan Co., New York, 1930.
Lowes, John Livingston, The Road to Xanadu, Houghton, ii1fflin
Co., Boston, 1927.
Pater, Walter, l1Coleridge l1 in Appreciations, The Macmillan Co.,
New York, 19~4.
Shairp, John C., Studies, in Poetrl ~ Philosophy, Houghton,
~ifflin Co., New York, 1909.

Symons, Arthur, The Ro@ant1c Movement in English Poetry, E.P.

Dutton, New York, 1909.
Vaughan, C.E., "Coleridge" In The Cambridge HistorY ~ ~g~SA
Li~erature, C.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1914. Vol.XI.